Thought I’d share a fun story I have about my first model I built.
When I was 10 or so, I bought a AMT A-4 skyhawk from the salvation army, I remember being super excited, but, had to mow the lawn first:) It was a hot summer day and remember using the red testors tube glue. Sadly the model is long gone.
Happy to discover which model it was, a thread over on HS, a guy built one.
What’s your first model you remember building?
As a kid,with my father,Aurora’s Godzilla
As an adult,when I restarted in early my 20’s it was Tamiya’s Panzer IV handpainted Gray with a whitewash
Revell USS Pittsburgh, brush painted with Testors chrome silver and flat black. I started and finished in one afternoon, sitting on the dining room floor (protected with an old newspaper of course). That was back in 1970.
I also remember when my dad came home, he told me that the real ship lost its bow in a storm, but made it safely back to port.
This is the very first model I ever built. My dad bought it for me. I think I was 10 years old. We had probably just watched Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo on Channel 4 in St. Louis. Back then, the kit was made by Revell. Now that Atlantis has re-released the kit, I plan to have this kit on the shelf very soon.
My mother took me to the local Five and Dime store to pick out a gift for my dad when I was about five years old. The moment I saw the Darrell Waltrip Tide car in amongst all the other stuff in the store, I KNEW that was the thing to buy. Our family didn’t watch Nascar, but the colors jumped off the box to a five year old boy.
I had obviously never built models at that age, and I don’t think he had ever built one either, but we sat together at the kitchen table with a tube of Testors glue and put that thing together one night. No side cutters, no masking, no paint, just plastic and glue. Eventually, we even got the decals on.
After years of being proudly displayed, the old kit met its end. By that time my interest in models had grown, and I salvaged the tires and wheels. They’ve bounced around different kits and projects ever since. (As you can tell from the Goodyear decals)
I just recently picked up another Darrell Waltrip car on eBay and plan on building it as soon as my current project wraps. Of course, I hope with a little more skill this time around. Heck, I might even put that set of wheels and tires from the first model kit on it…
This thread is terrific! I hope a lot more folks come on board and share their stories.
Friends and relative started giving me model airplane kits when I was about five. But I could not read the intruction well enough to build the kits. They were all stick and tissue flying models. Finally, when I was seven, I completed one, a Guillows Aerona. Never got it to fly, but soon I did get others to fly. I was hooked.
Dad found the first plastic model a few years later, a P-80. I think it was a Hawk kit. From the on I built everything- freeflight, control-line, and RC, and plastic models. When I moved to Minnesota, I found that the weather was not conducive for flying models, and began concentrating on plastic. Been building for 76 years now.
My first model was a Pyro Brontosaurus kit, built with my dad. Thinking back, I’ll bet that he built almost all of it, with me helping however I could. As an adult my first model kit was the Tamiya 1/35 M151A2 gun jeep that I picked up at the AAFES Shopette when I arrived at Ft Polk as a brand new 18 year old infantry Private. That one I decided that I would do all the “advanced” modeler things such as remove mold seam lines and sprue attachment points.
My first model was a F-100 Super Sabre bought on a fourth grade field trip to COSI in Ohio. No idea who made it, very small, at least 1/100 scale. The first kit that got me back to building as an “adult” was the Revellogram P-61 out of the bargain bin at a DrugMart. Somewhere in my mid forties…
Mine was a snap-tite Tom Daniel kit when I was 7.
Never really stopped building since then- though there were a couple pauses.
I remember building a few snap together kits back in 1970 - 71, but my first real glue together kit was an AMT 56 Ford I got for my birthday in October of 71 ( I just turned 5 )
I totally mauled that kit, engine parts glued on top of the hood, windshield recieved my now trademark thumb print, lost interior parts, and I didn’t cut out the x in the open doorways ( I thought they were supposed to be there as part of the roll cage.)
As for the paint, … brushed on Navy Blue EVERYWHERE.( except the trunk which I left bare White plastic as well as the interior… I couldn’t figure out how to paint the interior with it already assembled.) This was also the kit that my grandfather taught me to use Gasoline as a paint thinner… something that was necessary on the farm because trips into town were rare. ( I finally got to use real paint thinner a kit or two later.)
I then proceeded to put colored 3 ring binder re-enforcement circles all over it.
My dad called it the " Fruit-Loop funnycar".
It suffered my usual " experimental " fireworks accident.
I have since then gotten another one from the 1971 issue, but haven’t done anything with it … except sniff the 50 year old plastic … AAAAAAHHHHHH !!!
I don’t remember exactly, but my first models included the Disneyland space rocket, the visible man, and a number of HO Plasticville buildings.
Bill
The first model kit I remember getting was a 1/32 scale Aurora hot rod hot dog vending truck called “The Wurst”. My dad built it for me. I also remember him building an Aurora Patton tank for me too.
The two kits I remember building myself was the Aurora Prehistoric Scenes Saber Toothed Tiger and a Lindberg hot rod car that I put the steering wheel on the wrong side.
One of the oldest model kits I still have is an Aurora MBT70 I built as a young teenager around 1974. I rebuilt it in 1996 using a parts kit I found on eBay. Many of the small bits had been vacuumed up by my mom over the years.
Another old kit I still have is the MPC R2-D2 kit from about 1977. It was very poorly built.
As far as I can remember it was the Revell Seamaster when I was five.
My first kit was the Red Baron show rod (first issue), in first grade.
great topic, below is straight out of my user profile:
“I’ve been building models since I was 7ish when my brother bought me two ship models (he let me chose) for my birthday, the Bismarck and Hood. That started me on a lifelong fascination with ships and model building in general.”
My first kit with some help to fit the cockpit in was some iteration of Korean war era helicopter given to me by an unckle, I was about 8. It was an absolute glue bomb. My interest was more old cars but I built several airplanes along the way and buildings for my American Flyer train set. My second model was I believe made by Aroura, a 1/32 scale kit named 1932 Ford Jalopy. To this day I still keep my eyes open for one just for nastalgia sake. But that one I 100% built myself. The only stand out mistake is I got the front axle in upside down. But had gained control of the glue tube lol ! So it wasn’t all marred up with extra glue. How or why the axle was upside down I have no idea. Then came various planes, AMT cars, boats. Stick models etc etc. Painting models started at about 10, by 11 I was spray painting. At 11-1/2 - 12 I won a local hobby store contest in my age category with an AMT 1949 Ford entry that was spray painted gold metallic, had engine wiring and felt upholstered interior… I was on my way to model madness I think, I lived models. Working doors, suspension, steering. Chopped down coupes with transplanted enginess for circle track racers from stock kits etc.
Then girls and hormones, real cars for a stretch there, took a few years off. But modelers never really quit we’re like weebles, we may wobble or fall down but always get up lol !! So I’ve been building models since 1958ish.
A Model-T, when I was 5. I remember it as a Lindberg kit, but I may be mistaken. I put it together with Duco Household Cement and then played with it till it fell apart.
I started some 60 yrs ago with stick and tissue, probably Guillows but I remember my first plastic very well - the Revell 1/72 Fokker Eindecker. From there I transitioned to almost all 1/72 plastic. Went through the Revell line, discovered Monograms, then the wonders of Airfix, Heller, and Italerai. Slowed down after grad school but trying to get back in to tackle my somewhat overwhelming stash after I had to pause building but kept buying kits. In a fit of nostalgia, I had an opportunity to acquire the entire line of the series 100 Guilows WWI biplanes - sigh…
The same fate as nearly all my early models. (One was eaten by a dog)